Information about TRICARE is available on Walter Reed’s Web site at www.wramc.army.mil. Visitors are also welcome at Walter Reed’s TRICARE Service Center in Bldg. 2 (main hospital), third floor, Suite 3-D, for help with enrollment or claims issues. Phone (202) 782-4393 or DSN 662-4393.

TRICARE is a regionally administered Department of Defense managed-care health program with three options: Prime, Extra, and Standard. Active-duty service members must enroll in Prime. Eligible family members and retirees may choose whichever of the three options best suits their needs. Prime requires completing an enrollment form. Extra and Standard do not.

Walter Reed is part of the TRICARE North Region and works with the regional contractor, Health Net Federal Services, to offer TRICARE. Walter Reed is a Prime site for active duty and eligible family members and retirees.

How to enroll: In TRICARE North, all Prime enrollments require paperwork to be mailed to Health Net. Active-duty service members newly assigned to Walter Reed must complete this paperwork with 30 days of arrival. Active-duty service members receive enrollment forms during inprocessing. Forms are also available from Health Net online at www.healthnetfederalservices.com, and at Walter Reed’s TRICARE Service Center in Bldg. 2 (mainhospital), third floor, Suite 3-D. Phone (202) 782-4393 or DSN 662-4393.

TRICARE for Life is a program available to beneficiaries who are 65 and older. Those who enroll in Medicare Parts A and B are automatically considered users of TRICARE for Life. Under this program, they may see civilian providers in the community, use Medicare as the first payer for services, and get TRICARE as a second payer to pay for their Medicare deductibles and cost shares.

There are also six Uniformed Services Family Health Program sites in the Department of Defense. These sites enroll Medicare-eligible beneficiaries as well as active duty family members, and retirees and their family members under age 65. Those who enroll give up access to military treatment facilities for the duration of their USFHP enrollment. Four of these programs are in the TRICARE North Region. The closest to Walter Reed is offered through Johns Hopkins Medical Services Corp. Information on that program is available at (800) 80-USFHP.